An appeals court has denied Attorney General Pam Bondi‘s request to allow the state Supreme Court to review a ruling she says limits her ability to fight foreclosure fraud. Because of this decision, seven pending cases are now threatened, Bondi said Thursday.

In December, the state’s 4th District Court of Appeals ruled that Bondi does not have the authority to investigate a law firm for alleged fraud under the Florida Deceptive and Unfair Trade Practices Act because attorneys’ work on behalf of lenders did not constitute trade or commerce. She asked the court to certify that its decision in the Law Offices of David Stern, P.A. v. State of Florida case passes upon a question of great public importance so that she could appeal to the Supreme Court.

NOTE: Below in her request appears a reference to a link @ #4 Nevada v. LPS, but where is her lawsuit against LPS??

Attorney General Pam Bondi today filed a motion asking the Fourth District Court of Appeal to certify that its recent decision in Law Offices of David Stern, P.A. v. State of Florida passes upon a question of great public importance. In Stern, the Fourth DCA held that the Attorney General’s Office lacked authority under the Florida Deceptive and Unfair Trade Practices Act (“FDUPTA”) to subpoena records of the Stern firm as part of an investigation into possible misconduct in the firm’s handling of foreclosure cases.

Applicable court rules require certification from the Fourth DCA before this office may appeal the Stern decision to the Florida Supreme Court. The Attorney General’s motion asks the Fourth DCA to certify that its decision in Stern passes upon the following question of great public importance: whether the creation of invalid assignments of mortgages by a law firm and subsequent use of such documents by the firm in foreclosure litigation on behalf of the purported assignee is an unfair and deceptive trade practice which may be the subject of an investigation by the Office of the Attorney General.

LAW OFFICES OF DAVID J. STERN, P.A.vs.THE STATE OF FLORIDA DEPARTMENT OF LEGAL AFFAIRS,

NOTICE OF APPEAL

NOTICE IS GIVEN that Petitioner/Appellant LAW OFFICES OF DAVID J. STERN, P.A. appeals to the Fourth Court of Appeal the Order on Petitioner’s Amended Petition to Quash the Investigative Subpoena Duces Tectum Issued by Florida’s Attorney General

Florida Judge Eileen O’Connor denied Law Office of David J. Stern motion to quash a subpoena from Florida Attorney General Bill McCollum in connection with the AG’s investigation into several of the state’s foreclosure firms.

Firm battles state probe

The battle between Attorney General Bill McCollum and four law firms accused of shoddy foreclosure practices continued in Broward County Court on Tuesday, with the Law Offices of David J. Stern challenging the state’s subpoena.

Jeffrey Tew, legal counsel for Stern’s Plantation-based firm, argued that the attorney general’s office does not have jurisdiction to investigate law firms under the Federal Deceptive and Unfair Trade Practices Act, or FDUTPA.

That statute — the basis of McCollum’s case — only applies in cases where goods and services are being transferred between the accused and the alleged victim, Tew said.

“The alleged quote-unquote `victims’ in this case are the borrowers,” said Tew, presenting a motion to “quash” the subpoena. “FDUTPA requires that the law firm be exchanging goods and services of monetary value with the borrowers.”

Tew said that the law firm was exchanging its services with the banks, not the borrowers.

The judge, Eileen O’Connor, said she would rule in a couple of days.

The case is crucial to the state’s investigation, because it comes on the heels of another ruling in which a Palm Beach judge quashed the state’s subpoena of the Shapiro & Fishman law firm. That judge said the Florida Bar and the Supreme Court have jurisdiction to sanction lawyers, not the attorney general.

O’Connor indicated that she would judge independently.

“That’s not your better argument,” she told Tew after he referenced the Palm Beach case.